Clive Owen says lots of love, work went into action flick

Sep. 6, 2007

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Reno Gazette-Journal

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Actor Clive Owen throws all pretensions aside when talking about his starring role in "Shoot 'Em Up."

"To be brutal about it, the narrative and the story of the film is just an excuse to get to the next action scene as quickly as possible," he said. "What (writer-director) Michael (Davis) did is he punctuated each of the crazy sequences with sort of gags and one liners. It was very straightforward in lots of ways in terms of playing the part, and it was a lot of fun as well."

The film, opening today, is true to its name, as it opens with a spectacular gunfight, then weaves from one stylized action scene to the next for its entire 93-minute run. Owen stars as Mr. Smith, a mysterious protagonist who comes to the aide of a woman and her child. The film slowly explains why the child is targeted but, as Owen admitted, that's not as important as the action.

"I thought it was incredibly fresh and wild and original," he said. "I read it (the script) and literally, from the first page, it was very, very funny, very witty, very dry. "» It's not like any other action film that I've seen, and I think the thing that sort of separates it is its style and its wit. You can tell it's (made by) somebody who absolutely adores the genre, somebody who adores action."

The movie did present challenges for the 42-year-old star, not the least of which was preparing for a stunt-heavy shoot.

"I had to get physically very fit for it because it was very clear from the outset, Michael wanted me to do as much as was humanly possible," Owen said. "He has this theory about action that you want to feel like you're the guy doing it."

That doesn't, however, mean that the movie was all work.

"It was an awful lot of fun," Owen said. "There's something very satisfying about shooting action because your sort of objectives every day are very, very clear. It's very clear to everybody what the day's work is."

Because the film revolves around nonstop gunfights, the level of violence is striking. But Owen says he doesn't think viewers should take it seriously.

"To criticize the film for being too violent, I don't go with because I don't relate it to any violence in the real world," he said. "For me, it's so heightened and extraordinary. It's a bit like 'Sin City.' Some people said that that was a hugely violent film. It was, but it's a kind of cartoon violence. "» There's not a single scene in ("Shoot 'Em Up") that I think relates to my real life."

There are, however, plenty of scenes that Owen thinks audiences can embrace.

"It's absolute fact," he said, "that to watch a really entertaining shootout in a film is very good fun."